Sunday, July 27, 2008

NASCAR's Monday TV Shows Should Be Interesting

Note: There are new posts up for both NASCAR Now and This Week In NASCAR.

Normally, we talk about the head-to-head match-up of the two big Monday NASCAR TV programs on this post. This week, we are just going to talk about the content issues.

Monday's NASCAR Now is on-the-air at 5PM Eastern Time. Host Allen Bestwick has Ray Evernham, Brad Daugherty and Mike Massaro as his panelists. This is an interesting mix because all four of the men in the studio were on-hand at Indy. ESPN2 will deliver the first Monday review with four veterans who participated in the telecast.

It was Brad Daugherty who was outspoken live on ESPN and saying that this race was a poor effort and embarrassing to NASCAR. He was clearly not pleased and did not toe the NASCAR line as did several other announcers like Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace on Victory Lane.

Massaro was in the pits and reporting on the situation as it progressed. He was also the reporter who spoke with the key Goodyear spokesman on Saturday to update the potential problems on Sunday afternoon. His views and opinions should be outstanding.

Perhaps, the best person to address this situation is Evernham. His comments during the NASCAR Countdown pre-race show were the best explanation of how the tire situation happened and what it meant. His technical knowledge is going to be a good addition to this program.

Bestwick had a birds-eye view of everything from the Infield Pit Center all day long on Sunday. He led the network through NASCAR Now, SportsCenter, NASCAR Countdown, the live telecast and the post-race interviews. What more could he do? Fly to Connecticut and lead another hour-long show on Monday is the answer.

NASCAR Now's "roundtable" version is the best story of the season where racing TV is concerned. This Monday program should be one to watch, as it will be interesting to see who the program hosts as guests. Robin Pemberton from NASCAR perhaps?

Over on SPEED, Steve Byrnes will have his hands full for two reasons. First, Michael Waltrip will be on-set and he had a big crash at Indy. Byrnes is going to have to tackle Waltrip and get his head back in the game or this show could be a mess.

Joining Waltrip and Byrnes will be Greg Biffle who got a lot of time on-camera during the ESPN race telecast. The perspective of a driver who ran the entire race and was in contention should be a great asset to the show. Biffle has come a long way on TV and his opinions and commentary have been welcomed by the fans.

This Week in NASCAR will be on SPEED at 8PM. Both of these TV shows will re-air at Midnight Eastern Time as usual. It should be fascinating to see how ESPN2 and SPEED handle this very strange race on these review shows.

Note: If there was ever a week where SPEED should put the review before the preview, this is it. Skipping to Pocono without finishing the Indy discussion is going to put a serious dent in the credibility of TWIN.

There will be columns up for your comments shortly after both programs.

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51 comments:

This would have been a great week for Chad to be on TWIN but he's testing at Road Atlanta. JD your right Mikey will be a mess he finished 43rd, the 44 and 00 had bad days and now the 00 is 36th in points. I can't wait to hear what Ray has to say, he watched the show from the pit box and may have interesting perspective.

TWIN will lose what credibility they have left...do they have some?Pocono is a drag and the hoopla over the tires and the guys opinions will be huge.This show might as well turn out the lights if they insult the fans again by shoving the next race down our throats after such a disaster on Sun.

At approx 1135am this morning. John Roberts said it best going to commerical. It went something like this. Catch TWIN and watch the preview for the next weeks race and then backward to review this weeks race.

I doubt things will change. But I will record it just on the chance they do review Indy first.

If they would be honest about the issues on any of these shows, it might be interesting, but since NASCAR will by then have made their rounds and scripted the shows, we, the fans, will get the usual pablum or kool aid fed to us once again. I'll DVR the shows because I can't help myself.

I was actually surprised that so many drivers spoke out and apologized for the poor racing(except for the winner of course as would be obvious) considering that NASCAR will probably punish them for their comments.

I don't think anyone can control Waltrip when he's out of whack -- it was funnier when Scrader was there to tweak him. I'm glad to know that JR can mock the stupidity that continues with the way TWIN is run, but I don't find it humorous at all and its why I don't watch it live - ever.

The race at Indy would sure seem to validate Tony Stewart's criticism of Goodyear earlier this year. It will be interesting to see if anyone mentions this. Hopefully the Indy problems will cause both NASCAR and Goodyear to focus more on tire testing before races.

Richard -- I caught the blurb with DW on WT last night and he referenced "I'll bet Tony could tell Goodyear a thing or two". He and Despain laughed, but that's all that was said. Someone should give NASCAR and Goodyear a swift boot in the tail and get their attention.

just made arrangements to watch nascar now tonight b/c there is a serious issue on the table and the team for tonight has the knowledge to address it -- which is what i'm anticipating they will do.

some questions i'd like answered from yesterday so if any of the parties involved stop in today for fan input, here's mine:1. an explanation/idea as to why these tires went to dust instead of marbles. i've not seen that before and, despite what everyone on air was saying yesterday, at dirt track races, what you get covered with is mostly what we think of as marbles. dust is a side product, not what usually hits you in the face.

2. what is the difference (if any) between the indy and pocono tires?

3. what about this particular track at indy that led to yesterday's hot mess? a full (repeat) explanation of the surface of the track might be good to lead the show so folks are on the same page before the rest of the discussion begins.

4. on wind tunnel last night, dw speculated that the situation could have been handled by dragging tires across the track before the race like they used to do "back in the day" to rubber up the track. i have my doubts but could that have helped?

5. despain also stated that nascar knew about the problem on saturday and still didn't address it. it was obvious to those of us watching practice that there was a serious problem with tire wear. what was nascar doing beyond arranging for pocono tires to arrive?

6. the big gorilla in the corner question: what is it about the cot that made this race so different from previous cup races at indy? we all have our opinions and i'd like to hear from the panel, especially evernham.

i have not watched TWIN in the past several months and won't be making time for it tonight. my "nascar time" is limited and i have chosen to spend it watching shows that i feel will give me information, not recap and not preview. it may be that TWIN is outstanding but it doesn't match my personal needs.

what i look for from those involved in all aspects of nascar media is information when something goes terribly wrong as it did yesterday. only then can i begin to figure out for myself where i think the problem lay and what could ahve been done. i'm not looking to assign blame but the pollyanna attitude from victory lane last night isn't helpful, either.

(and jd? this all ties back to my complaint a month go or so that those media folks involved in nascar are not doing their jobs and have become apologists for the sanctioning body instead of reporters and honest commentators. last night cemented that in my mind -- big time.)

I've been reading a lot of the driver quotes from last night, and even Michael Waltrip, who's notorious for trying to spin things positive, said the following: "This was one of the worst races ever. It was so disappointing."

renata, thank you for that update on MW. Since I am not a regular viewer of TWIN. (In case you do not know, I hate the backwards format) I will look forward to comments on TDP before I review my recording of the race. Thank you again.

Yes, the backwards format of TWIN is so out of order. I will keep on plugging how bad is is, til my dying day. Or til JD tells me to take my comment on this elsewhere. JD knows what I mean, LOL, or maybe seriously. Between him and me.

You all at Speedvision Ooopps! sorry, LOL, SPEED need to recognize where you came from. Not where you are going.

Gee, Do we know what it is like to see a train heading to you on the same track. I watched VL Monday morning. NASCAR NOW last night could be that train. And staying on topic, you still have the NASCAR Now Monday to deal with. Which I watch each week. And only record TWIN and view based on comments on TDP. "Isn't TV fun".

I guarantee Mikey will be praising Nascar one way or the other. The core of the problem is the COT. It's amazing that the engineers conceiving and building this box didn't have a clue as to how it would affect the tires on the track. They should have had Goodyear involved from the start determining how the box and the tire were going to coexist. Maybe they need to go to some spaceage material for tires.

No problem Lou. Besides, I've gone through comments from about 30 drivers so far, and all of them are roughly the same. Except Jimmie Johnson & Dale Jr. were noticeably more positive than the rest. Also, if those of you that wondered about Reutimann last night read this, he lost a right rear and needed repairs. That's why he pitted so much.

It should be interesting how both programs toe the line tonight. I do expect NASCAR Now to be more harsh with the criticism than TWIN.

JD,I agree, please keep us posted on the column for TWIN. Look forward to your column and the comments.

And SPEED, take note. I will review my recording based on the column and the comments on TDP. And more important to the sponsors. If the preview of next weeks race is first Guess what, I will fast forward to about 28 or 30 minutes into the show.

To the sponsors. If you read this blog, what part do you not understand. I am trying to be nice and abiding by the rules on the right side of this page.

One great thing about TDP is that we can express our opinions and debate them.

Yes, do not worry NASCAR Now. Look forward to watching your hour this afternoon at 5pm, even if I record it I will watch the Monday NN an hour or two later with the commericals. Thanks AB, you are the best.

You would not believe the people who are reading this blog today and emailing me. If folks knew who they were talking to they would understand that NASCAR and the TV networks want to make things right, it is just a matter of doing it.

oops the was Mikey's KoolAid that's what I get for posting from work. And I don't mean that in a bad way, I am a big MWR fan and have come to his defense many a time, I just hope he says what he really thinks.

red, very good questions. I have asked about dragging the track in the past and never got any answer.

I don't understand the physics enough to have any idea why the COT's higher center of gravity would alter how the tires "rubber" the track - and cause the tires to powder, which everyone I heard Sat. and Sunday said was something they had never seen.

I'm certain some commentator must have mentioned it, but I never heard anyone mention/question whether the tire composition might have been altered as a consequence of higher material prices.

I did understand that some thought part of the problem this weekend at Indy was that there was "so little" banking to help the cars turn. As I recall, Michelin said its problem at the F1 race at Indy some years ago was "how much" banking there was in turn 1 and the stress that put on the sidewalls.

Well NA$CAR you made it to the big 3 sports shows this afternoon & it aint good.

Jim Rome - who says he did not break the pace car -was in awe of JJ riding him around the track @160mph while having a conversation w/Rome. He got double good jungle karma from Rome. And then he leveled NA$CAR not 1 time but 2(opening burn & the forum ouch)

Around the Horn added it was awful, a disgrace and blamed NA$CAR & Goodyear equally and they did not mince words.

And then PTI let it lose .They were unhappy also.

WOW Good Job NA$CAR. You got the pub!

I get the feeling ESPN is most unhappy w/ the non barnburner junk they got stuck with.

I have said OMG about 4 times here!! Waaay to go TWIN!! Staying w/the HOT story, unreal! And I figured we would get waylaid by all the ESPN shows that don't particularly care for Nascar anyway. :( Any pub is NOT good pub, IMO, at least in this case. Make the only sport I follow look like a laughing stock.